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The Wrath of God (Romans 1:18-32)

Scott Kercheville
11/29/20 - Sun AM

Notice Acts 24:24-25. Paul was on trial before the governor Felix. Felix was not a follower of Jesus,  but he knew plenty about this Jesus following. Despite this, notice what happens when he visited with Paul one day. “After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, ‘Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.’” (Acts 24:24–25 ESV) Felix knows quite a bit about “The Way,” but when Paul speaks to him about righteousness, self-control and the coming judgment, he’s alarmed. And he quickly sends Paul away. 

Isn’t that about how many can react today? “I’m great knowing you exist and even talking to you about your faith, until you talk about righteousness and the coming judgment.” But how would we respond if someone came to speak to us about this? That God has anointed Jesus as the king of everything and one day he will take his place and issue judgments? That everyone will be living carefree lives, but Jesus will suddenly come? That in view of that day it is vital to live now under God’s righteous decrees, turn from sinful passions and live with self-control? I dare say that even today that conversation would make some Christians unsettled. Even in the church we can become angry if someone dares talk to us about the possibility of sin in our life. After ten seconds many will deflect and talk about mercy. “Go away for the present.”

The idea of an objective standard of righteousness that one day the world will be judged by is a pretty unsettling and uncomfortable conversation to have today. We prefer an effeminate Jesus to the historical Jesus who, as Jude says, destroyed the unbelieving Israelites in the desert as a sign of what will happen to all who rebel. We receive salvation as a grace through faith, but no one can live a life of real faith without grappling with the fear falling into the hands of an angry God. We have to understand there is an objective righteous standard and one day every single person we know will stand before God’s throne, books will be opened and what we have done — how we are living and making decisions today — will be revealed and judgment of those deeds will be cast.

We get a really clear picture of God’s judgment against sin in Romans 1:18-32. Here Paul is laying out how it has come to be that everyone — Jews and Gentiles both — is under God’s wrath. We are going to study this so we can see the mindset of the world and be reminded of God’s judgment against sin. Let’s read Romans 1:18-32 and consider three themes that run through the text. (1) Exchanging the greater for the lesser, (2) God’s decision to give them up and spend his wrath on them, (3) how all this happens — deliberate suppression of the truth.

1. Exchanging the Greater for the Lesser

One theme that runs through this text is that people exchange what is great and good for something lesser. Verse 23, “[They] exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” Verse 25, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator...” Verses 26-27, “Their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another...”

There is a way things are supposed to be. The created worships the Creator. Adam and Eve get married and have natural sexual relations. But suppressing the truth about God causes us to undo the natural order from the bottom up. And when we undo it, we give up what is glorious for what is not glorious and the natural for the unnatural.

Though this is especially true of idolatry, fornication and homosexuality, there is a sense in which this is true of any sin. God’s law lays out how to live and interact with his world, anything else is inglorious and unnatural. We are like any tool - meant to be used as it was created. We are record players meant to play beautiful music. No matter how much Satan may warp our mind and make us think this record player should become a hammer, it doesn’t work. All temples have images of their gods and we are images meant to display God’s glory. If we worship the creation, give into sexual lust, leave natural sexual relations, we will be denying what we were created for. We will image the debased gods of this age into the world. We are breathing water instead of air. We will end up confused, empty, lost.

Felix ultimately chose ignorance over knowledge of the truth. When he did that, he exchanged the love, joy and peace that comes with knowing the true God for a life of doing what is right in his own eyes. No matter how natural it felt, it was an exchange for the worse.

2. Giving Them Up

Because of this, another theme that runs through the text is that God eventually gives them up and pours out his wrath on them. Verse 18, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men...” Verse 24, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity...” Verse 26, “God gave them up to dishonorable passions...” Verse 28, “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” God has a point where he lets people set the stage for final judgment by destroying themselves. Do we want to believe we are fine living in the lusts of our heart? God will give us up. Do we want to dishonor our bodies in same-sex relations and claim we are wise? God will give us up. Do we want to do what ought not be done? God will give us up to a debased mind.

God sends people to hell, but he’s only honoring the decision they have made. People can do what they want now, but he’s fixed a day when everyone’s decision will be final. Jesus will judge everyone in righteousness. 

Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but he will by no means clear the guilty. He eventually visits the sin of those who hate him. 

Felix was perfectly fine with the existence of people who followed Jesus, up to the point where Paul showed him it was not just a way of looking at the world but a righteousness to adopt or else you’ll perish. But how did it get to this? Why do people choose a self destructive path? Why would God pour his wrath out on his own creation?

3. Deliberately Suppressing the Truth

The pre-eminent theme of this text is this: people make a deliberate choice to suppress the truth. Verse 18, “Who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Verse 19, “What can be known about God is plain to them...” Verse 20, “His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived... So they are without excuse.” Verse 21, “Although the knew God they did not honor him as God.” Verse 28, “They did not see fit to acknowledge God...” Verse 32, “They know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die...”

We can sum that up in two words: deliberate ignorance. Everyone already knows and has clearly perceived God’s power. Everyone knows sin equals death. But many try to suppress this knowledge. We can silence our minds through unrighteousness — by doing whatever we please (vs. 18). We can suppress knowledge that the Creator should be honored by using our energy to honor what is created (vs. 21). The end of verse 20 gives the “so what”: “So they are without excuse.” 

This theme flies in the face of the narrative the world tells us. It ought to challenge how we think and talk in a host of ways.

1. People are ignorant, but that’s because they deliberately suppress the truth in their minds.
2. Everyone we talk to has clearly perceived God’s eternal power and divine nature in the things that have been created, but they don’t want to admit it to anyone — least of all themselves.
3. Everyone who continues in this life has willfully chosen to not acknowledge and honor God.
4. Everyone knows that people who practice these things deserve to die, but they do these things and give approval to others too.

This leads us to a crucial conclusion: when someone is not living in obedience to God’s will, they are “futile in our thinking” and their “foolish hearts are darkened.” They may externally look confident, they may claim to be wise, but they are fools who have a part of them deep down that is unsettled. They block it out reality by plunging into all manner of sin. They block out that the Almighty, immortal God made all this, that he in his wisdom ordered it in particular ways for good reason and he has a claim on how they live. They block out that he will kill those who do not live in obedience to him. The world’s narrative is that Christians believe a fairy tale. Paul rebuts: It’s the opposite and deep down everyone knows it.

How else can you say there was no beginning? How else can you say everything came from black holes colliding, but no one created that black hole? How else can you treat truth as if it is relative and simultaneously be outraged when anyone disagrees with you about anything? How else can you say Adam and Steve’s love for each other is beautiful? How else can you say abortion is simply a matter of a woman’s choice? Family — in our compassion for sinners let us not forget God’s simultaneous love for them and wrath against them. Let us not forget that just as we were once denying the truth, they are all wretched fools believing lies because it helps them sleep at night. This means we ought to be confident in our proclamation of the truth because, in a sense, they already know the most foundational truths deep down. We can snatch them from the fire.

But that ought not lead us to arrogance, “For such were some of you.” Notice Romans 2:1-11. Just because we judge others of suppressing the truth about God, the world, and righteousness doesn’t mean we aren’t doing the same thing and condemning ourselves.

Is it really honest to say we would read and pray and serve more if we just had more time? Is it really fair to say our anger, porn, laziness or whatever problem will go away if we aren’t willing to engage in serious prayer, fasting and accountability? Can we honestly say our constant adding to carts isn’t covetousness and idolatry? Is it accurate to say our hair, jewelry and clothing obsession isn’t vanity? See, we are all in danger of suppressing the truth to protect not just our self-image, but the way of life we have chosen. How else can we do these things? How else can someone say we love God’s word, but not come to Bible class? How else can we say we love God’s people, but hardly lift a finger to encourage or serve them?  How else can we say all our hope is in the life to come, and yet make decisions that cling so tightly to this life?

Proverbs explains why we are all in danger of suppressing the truth about God and righteousness.  “All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD.” (Prov. 16:2 NIV11) Real, objective self-examination is very hard and very rare. Our natural fleshly bent is to suppress the truth about God, righteousness and how it ultimately relates to my heart, behaviors and decisions day by day.  

Felix could only have an accurate knowledge of the way and yet be alarmed by Paul’s words because, he didn’t want to face the fact that these truths held a serious claim over his life. Will we recognize that we are in danger of the same thing?

Conclusion

Christmas season can be a good reminder of this. People anticipated the coming of the Lord for thousands of years. After returning to the land the Jews lived under oppression. Year after year they waited. Most became like the Greek world around them. Others sat in the temple day after day imploring God to return. They were downtrodden, waiting. And then their waiting suddenly ended when Mary received the news that Jesus would be born. I bet her ears rang for days and decades as she processed this news. He actually finally came.

One writer said Jesus’ first coming should force us to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is not like Santa Claus. One day in real history he will come a second time just as he really came the first time. And in that day all the fantasy depictions of God and his Son will be meaningless. All the inconsistencies we knew but suppressed. We won’t be able to say, “Oh, well, you know, I was just thinking that God would be like this.” It is time to wake up. The wrath of God will be revealed from heaven. All the ways God has been exchanged for a lie will be made evident.

But the good news shines brightly in the face of Jesus to snap us back to reality. Sin has been judged in the body of Jesus and those still hopelessly clinging to sin and false versions of reality when he comes will experience sin’s final destruction. But to those who will humbly cling to Jesus for all hope, salvation will be revealed from heaven. He will not forget those who embraced the coming of his wrath and chose to act in light of it. 

May God help us to fear him and his wrath. We live in a dangerous world that can easily compromise our faith. May God help us to stand firm for truth in this world that keeps suppressing plain truth, or we will be destroyed with the world.

This week we all gathered around our tables and gave thanks to God for the many blessings he has given us. Never stop genuinely giving thanks to the Creator for what he has created day by day. The whole downward spiral started in the beginning - how? “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him...”